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A Different Way of Handling NPC Treasure

There’s a horrible wealth disparity between PCs and NPCs. At 4th level, a PC has twice as much gear as an NPC, and by 11th level this increases to five times as much. There’s a reason for this: if NPCs had as much treasure as PCs, winning an “even” battle between four PCs and four NPCs of the same level would mean the PCs would double their wealth after one encounter. The reduced NPC treasure values allow PCs to fight CR-appropriate groups of NPCs without exploding the Character Wealth By Level table (Core Rulebook 399).

(Update September 23, 2014: If you like this post and where these ideas are going, please check out the kickstarter for my Five Moons RPG, which uses these ideas. Thanks!)

Unfortunately, this means that NPCs get crappy gear.

For example, Nightblade is a badass 10th-level NPC fighter. According to Table 14–9: NPC Gear (Core Rulebook 454), he has 12,750 gp worth of gear. When you apportion that according to the categories in the table, Nightblade gets 4,000 for “Weapons”, 4,000 for “Protection,” 3,000 for “Magic” (other permanent magic items), and 1,250 for “Limited Use” items like potions. If we allocate all of the Magic category to his weapon, Nightblade can almost afford a +2 sword. Spending 4,000 gp for Protection almost gets him +2 armor, and the Limited Use gold is probably a potion of bull’s strength and a couple of healing potions.

Meanwhile, a 10th-level PC fighter probably has 20,000 gp worth of weapons (that’s a +3 weapon right there), 20,000 gp worth of armor (that’s +4 armor), and 10,000 gp worth of miscellaneous items (maybe a ring or protection +2 or amulet of natural armor +2). The PC fighter kills Nightblade, and laughs at the junk gear he loots from Nightblade’s body because his PC gear is far better. If the PC is lucky, Nightblade’s primary weapon could useful as a backup weapon. For Nightblade to actually be an interesting encounter, and to give Nightblade a chance to have an item the PC may actually want, the GM has to skew the suggested NPC gear allocations, perhaps giving Nightblade a weapon worth 10,000 gp, and shortchanging his defensive items by only giving him the remaining 2,750 gp (out of 12,750 gp total) for that purpose. If the GM does that, it means Nightblade has good treasure, but is easier to kill than a typical NPC. Still a problem!

So what if we change the paradigm of NPC treasure? What if we stop assuming that the PCs get to loot all of the items from an NPC? After all, it’s not like a typical PC is going to loot an orc of his shirt, rations, junky armor, boots, and arrows (unless you’re in a gritty campaign where scrounging every last copper is the only way to survive).

I’m going to use monster encounters in World of Warcraft (WOW) as an example. (I know, I know, outrage, “keep your MMO out of my tabletop,” etc., etc.). Let’s say you’re a level 6 PC and you’re fighting a level 6 monster such as a castle guard. That guard is wearing a full set of armor, like this Northwatch Marine. Now, if your WOW character kills that guard, do you think your character gets to loot the Marine’s sword and a full set of armor? Hell, no! That Marine’s treasure is a few coins, some items your character can use for crafting, perhaps a healing potion, and some junk you can sell to a vendor for a little more money. The game doesn’t account for his weapon and armor at all. You could say that’s a flaw in the game, or violates your suspension of disbelief, but I think you can rationalize it as, “I just beat the crap out of this guy, his weapon is blunted from hitting my armor, and I damaged his armor enough that it’s basically worthless.” So your loot from this guard is just what you can salvage from him. In WOW, you can clear out an entire castle of 30 guards and you’ll get various small treasures. In a tabletop RPG, you can clear out an entire castle of 30 guards (or bandits, or whatever), and now you have 30 complete sets of chainmail which you can sell for 75 gp each or outfit your own garrison of guards for the castle you now own.

Let’s use another WOW creature as an example, this time a boss, Scarlet Commander Mograine. This guy is basically an evil paladin, and he’s wearing heavy mail armor and carrying a big magic mace and a shield. We know he’s equipped with these things because when the PCs kill him, they can loot a shield, gauntlets, mace, or leggings from him. But you only get one of those items, not all four. Obviously he was wearing more than just that one item, but the treasure you get from him is what you’re able to salvage from his corpse. Maybe the other items were damaged, or they’re magically attuned to him and you can’t use them, or whatever. You only get one. This means an encounter with Mograine can be a fun, tough battle for the PCs, and any warrior-type PC is going to get a really nice magic item from the fight–but it’s not an instant upgrade of that PC’s armor, weapon, and shield.

So what does this mean for a tabletop game? Well, let’s propose that NPCs get more equipment for their level, but they only tend to “drop” (that’s a computer game term meaning “what treasure you can loot from it when you kill it”) one main treasure item, and perhaps some secondary items that might be useful but aren’t a “prize” item like a magic weapon that’s a possible upgrade compared to a PC’s weapon.

Let’s go back to Nightblade, our example badass 10th-level NPC fighter. If we double his treasure allotment, that’s 25,500 gp; approximately 8,000 for Weapon, 8,000 for Protection, 6,000 for Magic, and 2,500 for Limited Use. This version of Nightblade can actually afford a +2 longsword just by using his Weapon budget, without dipping into his Magic budget. And he can almost afford +3 full plate with his Protection budget (he’d have to use 1,000 or so from his Magic budget, as +3 armor is 9,000 gp plus the mundane armor cost). Nightblade can use the rest of his Magic budget to get a belt of giant strength +2 and a ring of protection +1. His Limited Use budget can get him an elemental gem or a necklace of fireballs type I.

When the PCs defeat Nightblade, they can loot items worth about what’s listed on the NPC Gear table for him–in this case, about 12,750 gp worth. Perhaps the +2 longsword and the belt of giant strength +2, or the +3 full plate and the belt, or the belt, ring, and necklace of fireballs–items that 10th-level PCs would actually find useful. Throw in 1d100 gp in coins and you have a reasonable treasure award for the defeating Nightblade. All of Nightblade’s other gear isn’t lootable or usable. And that 12,750 gp worth of loot is still much better than the 4,250 gp the PCs could expect to loot for a non-NPC CR 9 monster (Table 12–5: Treasure Values Per Encounter, Core Rulebook 399).

As another example, consider Bablasto the 10th-level NPC wizard, who under this system gets 25,500 gp; approximately 8,000 for Weapon, 8,000 for Protection, 6,000 for Magic (other permanent items), and 2,500 for Limited Use. Because he’s a wizard, he doesn’t need a weapon for stabbing his opponents, so let’s put that 8,000 into the Protection budget. Protection gets him a ring of protection +2 and an amulet of natural armor +2; if supplemented with a mage armor spell, that gives Bablasto AC of 18 plus Dex mod. Alternatively, he swaps the ring and amulet for a cloak of resistance +4, or a ring of protection +3, or a fun item like a blessed book which has no effect on his stat block but is a nice treasure for a PC wizard to keep). Other Magic budget items can be a headband of vast intelligence +2 and a brooch of shielding to block those inevitable magic missile attacks. As a wizard, he gets double value from using his Limited Use items on scrolls (for 5,000 total), and in doing so he could easily afford to scribe four 5th-level spells (at 1,125 gp each) and still have some left for a nice cure moderate wounds potion. When the PCs defeat Bablasto, they can loot about 12,750 gp worth of stuff from him, like his ring +2 and amulet +2 (or the cloak +4, or the ring +3, or the blessed book), perhaps with the brooch and one of the scrolls. Interesting loot, usable loot, but not disposable loot.

As of right now, I haven’t done any serious math about how much more difficult this would make encounters with the NPCs. However, a +2 (based on the differences in what Nightblade can afford) on hit and damage rolls or saves, or to AC, isn’t a big deal (the advanced creature simple template adds +2 to all rolls and it’s just +1 CR). Considering that four PCs ganging up on one CR-appropriate NPC isn’t a fair fight (it’s an “average” encounter, and the PCs are expected to win and only expend 20-25% of their resources on the battle), if the NPC is a little tougher it may make the encounter “challenging,” but not “hard.” It would be interesting to see how this affects finale-type encounters with higher-level NPCs, but seeing as the game is skewed in favor of the PCs, most boss fights could have a bit of power-up for the sake of better treasure.

If you have comments about this, feel free to discuss them on my Facebook fan page or my long-neglected message boards.

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14 thoughts on “A Different Way of Handling NPC Treasure”

A very interesting idea. I’ll have to think on this awhile. I think a lot o the knee jerk ‘No Video Games!’ reaction we see a lot in TTRPGs is a mistake. MMOs have had to solve a lot of problems, and we should consider a good idea the same no matter where it came from.

Is this really a different way of looking at treasure or just going back to level appropriate treasure charts and away from the 3.x philosophy that npcs follow the same rules as pcs? If the pcs can’t interact with the items then it really doesn’t matter what items the npc has, just give him the to hit and ac you want, no reason to pretend they are tied to gear.

It is also hard to compare to things like WoW loot systems with out acknowledging that it inherently adds to the pcs being incouraged to grind or farm for gear… That may or may not be a feel you want to add to your game.

Overall, I would agree this concept of untethering loot from ability allows math to be freed up to make the challenges you want, but it also affects the feel of the game in ways that can’t be ignored. (For good or bad)

It’s interesting that you mention the “3.X philosophy,” as a side topic I decided to not talk about in this article is 4E’s idea of “monsters should have the stats they need to make the encounter interesting, even if that means they’re not built the same way as PCs.” Having dealt with this professionally for 14 years now, I tend to agree with that idea; having to build a high-level NPC or monster exactly as you would a PC just means you end up with monsters who have tons of leftover skill points that they end up spending on Appraise, Disguise, and Survival (looking at you, pit fiend). Having built and developed so many classed characters for the NPC Codex, it’s easy to see how the expected AC, hp, attack bonuses, and saves for a “monster” at each CR skew for classed characters (frex, the level 10 paladin NPC has 84 hp, but a CR 9 creature is expected to have about 115 hp). That’s not a problem with how the classes are built, but a problem with the expectation that what makes a well-rounded paladin PC is exactly the same as what makes a good combat encounter with a paladin NPC.

The ‘magically attuned to’ statement has me wondering if arcane bond (object) wizards have their bonded item listed in their stat block as treasure to be looted. Once the object leaves the wizard’s possession it should revert ‘ to being an ordinary masterwork item”. This could also work for other NPCs.

I’ve basically done this when prepping NPCs, but from another way around. Instead of adding protective items that the PCs won’t capture, give them the equivalent buff spells (or give them potions they always know to drink before combat.) Frankly, the players will never even ask where those extra 5 points of AC came from: they’ll just notice the AC is similar to their own.

A 50 gp potion of barkskin gives the same bonus as a 4,000 gp amulet of natural armor +2, and leaves no loot behind. Same with a potion of shield of faith and a ring of protection. Or an oil of magic weapon. Or oil of magic vestment.

Heck, a lot of those spells can probably be glued on with Permanency, without even needing to quaff three potions right before the PCs charge in, and it still doesn’t leave lootable wealth behind.

Another thing about NPCs is that even if they did have equivalent gear to PCs, they’d still not be appropriate encounters of CR = level as in 3.5 (PF changes it to level-1, which is closer but still not really right). The reason is that four PCs ganging up on one NPC are not going to spend 1/4 of their resources on that fight. They’ll spend more like 1/16.

Let’s take a vastly simplified example: let’s say all combatants involved have 100 hit points, and automatically hit each round for 10 points of damage. Four of them (the PCs) are ganging up on the fifth (the NPC). The NPC is going down some time in the third round, so he will have dealt 20 or 30 points of damage (depending on initiative, call it an average of 25) total to the PCs, our of their 400 total hp. 25/400 = 1/16.

If there are two NPCs, and the situation is such that neither side can focus-fire (creating two 2-on-1 battles), the NPCs will go down after five rounds of battle instead, having dealt about 50 hp each. That’s a total of 100 hp, or 1/4 of the PCs’ total hp. That’s more like a proper EL encounter. Since the system (both in PF and 3e) is set up so that two equal opponents have EL = CR +2, that means that an NPC with stats equal to a PC ought to have a CR of level-2. If they’re in sub-par NPC gear, I’d change that to level-3.

Oh, and one thing about the “20-25% of your resources” thing… back when 3e was first designed, were you guys aware of what the combination of easy access to magic gear + making wands of any low-level spell did to that math? I’m thinking of the Wand of Cure Light Wounds in particular – letting everyone heal up between fights at a cost of less than 2 gp per hit point.

I honestly feel the larger problem is the reliance on rare and powerful gear and sometimes a weird abstraction of inventory to unrealistic levels. I honestly have no problem with players looting characters, I feel it gives a kind of awesome gritty reward. Even in the history of real life, people would steal the chain shirts off soldiers they fought, repair it and now have their own chain shirt. But if they’ve already have one, they don’t really need another one. If you kill 30 guards and steal all of their armor, you would have 30 suits of armor, how would you be carrying all of that? Where would you even put it? You obviously can’t carry a suit of armor and still be fighting. Magical rare items, should be that, magical and rare. If both the player fighter and the enemy fighter are glowing like Christmas Trees then not looting the enemy seems unrealistic and not giving the player the loot just feels like GM fiat.

The acquisition of less than par items leads to encumbrance quickly. It doesn’t really become too much a problem if you take size and amount into account as a GM.